An investigation into alternative conceptions and knowledge retention of manufacturing concepts in undergraduate/graduate engineering students

Abstract

Manufacturing organizations are constantly demanding competent young engineers with a solid knowledge on manufacturing topics. At Engineering Degrees, Manufacturing Processes is a compulsory subject where the students learn theoretical and practical knowledge about manufacturing processes. However, it should be noted that not all engineering students have a previous manufacturing knowledge since their curricula from high school may differ notably. In those cases, manufacturing processes may be a hard course to pass. In this paper, a study is carried out about the student's learning process on manufacturing at undergraduate and graduate level. The aim is to know, on the one hand, the students’ alternative conceptions, their misunderstandings and the lack of knowledge about manufacturing and, on the other hand, the state of the conceptual understanding (assimilation) and the retention over time (durability) of previously learned manufacturing concepts. Then, lecturers may select the best methodologies to teach manufacturing.